AFP
Israel hopes to close debate on West Bank barrier
Date: Sunday September 19
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he hoped to close the international debate over Israel's West Bank barrier, predicting that Palestinian efforts to take the issue to the UN Security Council would fail.
Shalom is in New York for this week's annual meeting of the UN General Assembly and has been lobbying European heavyweights furiously to ensure that the Palestinians do not get the required nine votes needed to have the barrier debated by the 15-member Security Council.
Israel has suffered a series of blows at the hands of the United Nations over the barrier, including a decision by the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest legal body, which ruled in July that parts built within the West Bank were illegal and should be torn down.
That non-binding verdict was later endorsed by a vote among members of the UN General Assembly, including all the member of the European Union.
But Shalom told public radio on Sunday he believed the EU heavyweights did not want the issue hammered out in a session of the Security Council.
"I have met numerous foreign officials, particularly from France, Germany, Italy etc to tell them that they must not give the Palestinians a platform for this subject," Shalom said.
"Our efforts are beginning to bear fruit as the majority of countries are telling the Palestinians that they don't want it discussed any more."
The Palestinian Authority, which has observer status at UN headquarters in New York, has been lobbying the Arab bloc to push for a Security Council resolution against the barrier.
While they are aware that the United States would likely veto any resolution against the project, especially if it calls for sanctions, the Palestinians believe that a Security Council debate would add to the pressure on Israel.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's senior advisor, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said that diplomatic efforts would continue.
"We will work with the Arab group and the group of the non-aligned countries to ask the general assembly to implement the decision that has already been voted for," Abu Rudeina told AFP.
However Shalom said he believed only eight countries at the most would agree to the issue being taken to the Security Council.
"The Palestinians need nine votes to bring to bring the question to the Security Council and that is apparently impossible," he said.
Israel insists that the barrier is essential to halt attacks on its territory by Palestinian militants, pointing to a relative drop in suicide bombings since construction began as evidence of its success.
However the Palestinians say that by designing a montage of concrete walls, razor wire and electronic fencing that often juts deep into their territory, the Israelis have shown their real intent of grabbing more of their land.
In events on the ground, a member of Islamic Jihad was shot dead by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip Sunday during an operation to plant explosives.
Three other fighters from the radical Palestinian movement were wounded as they tried to plant the explosives near the Karni border crossing into Israel, Palestinian medical and security sources added.
An Israeli military source said that several Palestinians had been spotted approaching a security fence near Karni.
"We know that we hit at least two of them, one of whom was armed, in an off-limits zone around 300 meters (yards) from the fence," she said.
"We believe they were trying to plant an explosive and a search of the area will begin shortly."
The latest death raised to 4,319 the number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the uprising against Israeli occupation, including 3,305 Palestinians and 943 Israelis, according to an AFP toll.
SOURCE
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